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BarryMarshall

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Professor Marshall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005, for his part in the discovery of Helicobacter pylori . He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Western Australia in 1974. After internship at Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre he met Robin Warren, a pathologist interested in gastritis, during internal medicine fellowship training at Royal Perth Hospital in 1981. Together, the pair studied the presence of spiral bacteria in association with gastritis, and the following year (1982), performed the initial culture of Helicobacter pylori and developed their hypothesis related to the bacterial cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer.

In 1984, while at Fremantle Hospital, Marshall fulfilled Koch's postulates for H. pylori and gastritis in a well-publicized self-administration experiment, in which he drank a culture of H. pylori.

Following that, he became a research fellow at the University of Virginia, USA, rising to the rank of Professor of Medicine, before returning to Australia to accept the Burnet Fellowship at the University of Western Australia in 1997.

Professor Marshall continues research related to H. pylori and runs a molecular biology lab (the H. pylori Research Laboratory) at the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre in Perth, Western Australia.

Professor Marshall is married to Adrienne, a psychologist and aspiring artist. They have four adult children, two married, and all living in Australia and working in various IT careers.

What made you decide to become a gastroenterologist?

I took an interest in Helicobacter pylori, and discovered that it caused peptic ulcer (Lancet June 4, 1983).

Who was the teacher you admired the most?

Len Matz, my pathology teacher in Med School.

Which research paper influenced you the most?

Probably a paper showing a low relapse of peptic ulcers after treatment with bismuth. This was by D Martin and J P Miller in the Lancet 1981 Jan 3;1(8210):7-10.

What is the most important fact that you have discovered?

That a spiral bacterium called Helicobacter pylori was associated with gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer.